Treatment of sugarcane vinasse from cachaca production for the obtainment of Candida utilis CCT 3469 biomass

Ethanol and "Cachaca" production processes generate considerable amounts of residues known as vinasse. The indiscriminate disposal of this waste represents a potential risk to both surface water and groundwater, soil, animals, and ultimately the entire environment. This work describes an altemative to reduce the environmental impact through cachaca vinasse management practices by using it as a culture medium for the growth of Candida units CCT 3469 to produce biomass, replacing the conventional production from cane molasses. For that both, the raw and vacuum evaporated, vinasses from cachaca were treated by using different pH adjustments and activated charcoal adsorption (2.5%). The vinasses treated at pH 6.0 were selected to produce Candida utilis CCT 3469 biomass (2.25 gL(-1)). In this case, higher values of volumetric biomass productivity (0.08 gL(-1) h(-1)) and biomass yield (0.13 gg(-1)) were obtained, as also for the higher specific rates for glucose consumption (1.354g(glucose) g(cell)(-1) h(-1)), fructose consumption (0.811 g(fructose) g(cell)(-1 )h(-1)) and biomass (0.616 h(-1) ). The ratio values for BOD/COD (0.02) characterized the vinasse as an effluent of difficult degradation and biological treatability. Probably this fact favored the obtainment of yeast biomass in the treated vinasse at the lowest concentration factor.